Abstract: Joseph Wilson McCutchan (1917-1982) was a professor in the UCLA School of Engineering and Applied Science. He made contributions
to the development of courses in design and thermodynamics, and gained prominence in area of saline water conversion. As head
of the Saline Water Conversion Laboratory in 1960, he led a small pilot-plant group for the development of reverse osmosis
(RO) using a UCLA-developed synthetic RO membrane and directed pilot-plant field tests toward the production of potable water
from brackish water, sea water, and agricultural waste water. The collection consists of papers, reports, research, correspondence,
and course work materials related to McCutchan's career at UCLA and as a researcher in reverse osmosis desalination.

Repository:
University of California, Los Angeles. Library.
Department of Special Collections.

Los Angeles, California 90095-1575

Physical location: Stored off-site at SRLF. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. Please contact the UCLA Library, Department
of Special Collections Reference Desk for paging information.

Property rights to the physical object belong to the UCLA Library,
Department of Special Collections. Literary rights, including copyright,
are retained by the creators and their heirs. It is the responsibility of
the researcher to determine who holds the copyright and pursue the
copyright owner or his or her heir for permission to publish where The UC
Regents do not hold the copyright.

McCutchan was born in Pawnee, Oklahoma, on December 24, 1917; BS in chemical engineering, University of Arkansas; MS in engineering,
UCLA; appointed lecturer at UCLA in 1946 and remained there for the rest of his career; made contributions to the development
of courses in design and thermodynamics; gained prominence in area of saline water conversion; as head of the Saline Water
Conversion Laboratory in 1960, he led a small pilot-plant group for the development of reverse osmosis (RO) using a UCLA-developed
synthetic RO membrane and directed pilot-plant field tests toward the production of potable water from brackish water, sea
water, and agricultural waste water; spent sabbatical leaves in Washington, D.C. at the Office of Saline Water and Office
of Water Research and Technology; consultant to U.S. Navy and Department of the Interior; died on October 15, 1982.

Scope and Content

Collection consists of papers, reports, research, correspondence, and course work materials related to McCutchan's career
as a professor in the UCLA School of Engineering and Applied Science and a researcher in reverse osmosis desalination.

Indexing Terms

The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog.

Subjects

McCutchan, Joseph Wilson--Archives.

University of California, Los Angeles. School of Engineering and Applied Science--Faculty--Archives.

Saline water conversion--Reverse osmosis process--Research.

Related Material

Collection of Material about Irrigation and Soil Science (Collection 1679). Available at Department of Special Collections,
UCLA.